1) Technical Fields
The Dual Power invention described herein relates generally to a dual power propulsion system for human power vehicles, and more particularly to the use of a turning track, rack, pinion and one-way bearing propulsion system to permit turning of the vehicle while providing torque to the driving wheel of the vehicle from simultaneous or individual use of the rider's arms and legs.
2) Discussion of Related Art
Human powered vehicles employing many different designs for humans to move vehicles have been developed and used throughout the ages. These types of vehicles have been used in many activities, including but not limited to sports, riding to work or store, movement of goods and passengers in commerce, physical exercise, conditioning, or other task. The types of vehicles that can utilize the benefits of a crank axle and driving wheel powered by both the rider's arms and legs include, but are not limited to: bicycles, tricycles, recumbent bikes and trikes, tandem bicycles, human powered airplanes, human powered helicopters, and water craft.
Current and past variations of combined arm and leg powered vehicles have embraced rotating hand cranks, pumping handle bars “up and down” or “back and forth” over the stem of the bicycle, moving one arm up in one direction and the other arm down in the opposite direction simultaneously, moving both arms up and down simultaneously while pulling-on handle bars, and the use of systems containing rods, rotating cables, gears, and racks connecting movable handle bars to the crank axle. An example of this prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195, by Graham Sommer, in which a cable is attached to a moveable handle bar that moves “up and down” in unison with a similar movement of the rider's arms and hands. Because U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 uses only an unsheathed push-pull cable by itself to transfer power from the pumping arm bars to the crank axle, the rider's arm power is delivered to the crank axle only during the single condition in which the rider is “pulling-up” on the movable handle bars and thus pulling-up on the cable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 does not provide an ability for the rider to deliver any power to the crank axle when the rider's forearms and hands are “pushing down” on the movable forearm bars. This is because U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 enables only the use of standard push/pull cables, which are not sliding inside a stationary cable sheath. Thus, it only causes power to be delivered in the “Pull” mode, and not in the “Compression” or push mode. Because the cable is moving by itself, and not sliding within a stationary sheath, the rider's downward stroke on the forearm bars is like pushing on a string, and hence no power can be delivered to the forward rotation of the crank axle and driving wheel during the “down” stroke. In fact, U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 includes as one of its necessary components, a mechanical re-wind mechanism that automatically re-winds the cable during the compression stroke; this ensures no human power can propel the bicycle forward during the rider's “push” stroke on the push/pull cable's “down” stroke.
A second example of variant prior art is USPTO Publication No. US 2007/0114086 A, published May 24, 2007, by Glessner, et. al., and describes a bicycle with two transmissions powered by two aero bars. In the Glessner publication, he enables his invention with the rider sequentially raising and lowering each aero bar separately, first the left one is pulled-up while the right aero bar is simultaneously pushed down, then the left aero bar is pushed-down while the right aero bar is pulled-up. This is quite different from the current invention in which the rider simultaneously pushes and pulls both the right and left forearm bars up together and then pushes them down together. Glessner also does not reference the need nor the use of employing inverted positioned rack and pinion gears in his drive train.
While some vehicles have had modest acceptance in the marketplace, they have been deficient because they cause excess resistance from friction-loss in the operative component parts, they are clumsy to operate, they only provide energy into the crank axle during the pulling or upward stroke of the handle bars, at high speeds some of the designs cause the rider's control of the bicycle to be unstable.
The purpose of this invention is to remedy all of the afore-described and other deficiencies in the prior art relating to arm power assisted cycling.